Extraordinary Machine
by CherryxDarling
Summary: discontinued.
1. Two Birds With One Stone

**Story: **Extraordinary Machine

**Chapter: **Two Birds With One Stone

**Genre(s): **romance/drama/humor

**Pairings: **Jimmy/Cindy, Libby/Sheen, implied Nick/Cindy

**Rating: **T.

**Summary: **In order to get the girl, Jimmy concocts a plan. He needs to be extraordinary, so he enlists Marcus Nevins and his two best friends to help him. But along the way, he learns that there is more to it than that.

**Disclaimer: **_**I don't own Jimmy Neutron or AstroTurf. But I sure as hell own Marcus Nevins. **_

**Notes: **this story is ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. Jimmy and Cindy are neighbors but they aren't enemies/friends/secret lovers. You'll see when you read.

Also, this will probably be short. I'm expecting like, five chapters? Hopefully, they'll be long. The longer the chapters, the shorter the story.

I don't know why, but I made the characters really OOC. I guess it's because it's an AU story? But Sheen is smarter, Carl is more sarcastic, Jimmy is more serious, Cindy is more mysterious, but Libby is mostly the same.

So…no reviews saying how weird my story is, got it? Please and thank you!

* * *

Jimmy Neutron was seventeen years old, and he was a genius. He thought that he had a simple life, with parents, two best friends, and robot dog. He went to school and did his homework, slept and ate like regular teenagers. He had a neighbor…a really hot neighbor. She was the typical girl-next-door type; pretty and perfect and popular. Although Jimmy didn't consider himself unpopular or ugly, he didn't think he had a chance with a girl like her. That kind of girl went after guys like…football players or macho college guys. You know the type. But he did watch her from afar, sometimes spying on her – but not in a perverted way, of course. He was raised better than that. Over time, Jimmy even felt like he had _feelings_ for this girl, and it freaked him out a little.

Yes, despite the capacity of knowledge his brain held, Jimmy Neutron was just a normal guy. And there was nothing wrong with that.

Until…

"I just don't like normal guys," Cindy Vortex said, shrugging.

Libby Folfax rolled her eyes and leaned back on her elbows. "You are _just_ too picky. Your standards are much too high! You'll never find anyone that way."

They were currently sitting in Cindy's bedroom, and of course, they didn't know that they were being spied on.

It was all Sheen's idea, really. He was "bored" and he wanted something "exciting" and "fun" to do. Jimmy just found this all to be very troublesome. Carl didn't really have much say in anything, even though he didn't want to go along at all.

"You hear that, Jimmy? Cindy said she doesn't like normal guys," Sheen poked him in the side. He winced.

"I'm right here, I'm not _deaf,_" He complained, poking Sheen in the chest. Before a poking war was started, Cindy spoke again.

"Okay, I'll have to admit that there really isn't such a thing as _normal_. But…any guy I choose has to be different, you know? I don't want the quarterback on the football team or the smartest kid in math class. Can't I have something extraordinary?" Cindy lay on her back, arms behind her head. She stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.

Libby sat up and stared at her intensely. "The quarterback on the football team or the smartest kid in math class, huh?" Cindy nodded absently, and Libby continued. "So, in other words, you don't want Nick. Or…say, Jimmy Neutron."

Cindy looked at her best friend, her nose wrinkled. "Of course not Nick! God, his brain is the size of a peanut. And who the hell is Jimmy Neutron?"

Libby thought this whole conversation was ridiculous. Cindy sometimes had dreams and aspirations that were out-of-reach and kind of inane; and what was this about her not knowing who Jimmy Neutron was? He _is_ her neighbor, after all…and he had been her entire life.

Deciding not to argue, Libby laid down next to her best friend and they were both quiet.

On the eavesdropping side of the spectrum, Jimmy Neutron was _shocked_.

Was he really that overlooked? Sure, he didn't think that Cindy Vortex took time out of her perfect planned schedule to think about her neighbor, but it wasn't like he was completely invisible.

And what was that bullshit about not wanting to date the smartest kid in math class? Jimmy did not like to brag, but he _was_ the smartest kid math class. That was just pure knowledge.

_I do not like this_, Jimmy decided quickly. _And I'm going to do something about it_.

* * *

"Well, if you're going to win over her heart, how are you going to do it?"

Jimmy Neutron had a serious issue at hand. He knew what he _wanted_ to do, but he didn't know _how_. This was a very unsettling situation. He was usually good at figuring out how to do things. It was basically his living.

"I…don't know. Any suggestions, boys?"

Sheen thought long and hard, his eyes staring at a spot on the wall, not even blinking. Jimmy was used to this, however, and looked to Carl for any guidance. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, picking at his shoes. "Carl? Have you thought of anything?"

Carl looked up, adjusted his glasses and shrugged. "You could…try to be different."

Sheen blinked.

Jimmy's brows furrowed. "How so?"

"Well…Cindy said she wanted something different and extraordinary. You could try to be different and extraordinary."

Jimmy waited for a few moments to let this idea sink in. And when it did, it was like a revelation. It was such a simple solution to a difficult problem!

"You are exactly right, Carl!" Jimmy jumped up from his huge genius chair and Sheen jumped in alarm, blinking rapidly. "But wait…how am I supposed to be extraordinary?"

Sheen and Carl stared at him with blank looks on their faces. Jimmy felt just as blank as they did. He sighed with defeat and slumped back into his chair.

"We need help."

Sheen nodded, staring at the wall again. "Okay, we need something…no, someone. Someone who can help you be extraordinary. Who do you know that is extraordinary?"

All three boys stopped and thought about this. Who was extraordinary? More importantly, what made a person extraordinary? Were there more than one definition of extraordinary, and what was _Cindy's_ definition?

Jimmy, because he was a genius, pondered all these questions very carefully. He was so deep in thought, he didn't notice as Sheen jumped up, exasperated with all the thinking and pondering, and starting ranting about girls and their mysterious ways to Carl when Jimmy finally got an idea of what to do.

"We need to keep spying," Jimmy stood up, as if he had just announced to a room that he was seventeen years old, male, and a genius; all normal and obvious things.

Sheen froze with his arms up in the air, where they had been exaggeratedly making a point. Carl looked up at him curiously.

"Oh my. Carl, are you listening to this? Jimmy had a good idea, and for once, I think the source was from me. Me, Carl. I am the genius of the hour!" Sheen became mobile again, his arms flailing.

Jimmy just rolled his eyes.

Spying was a fantastic idea, it really was. But what Jimmy, Sheen, and Carl _didn't_ count on was the fact that girls, even teenage ones, didn't talk about boys all day and all night, unlike what everyone said about them. They talked about various other subjects: clothes, make-up, music, movies, TV, shopping, plans to go shopping, how bitchy some other girl is, how slutty some other girl is, their parents, how unfair their parents are, and how hot that guy was.

See, whenever girls talked about boys, it usually wasn't "Oh, see that guy? I don't like him. You know what I like in a guy?" And so on. It was more like, "Oh, see that guy? He's so hot." Or it was, "Oh, see that guy? I met him once at the mall. He's so hot, but he has a girlfriend. She's such a bitch, and slutty too. Want to go shopping later? Oh, you can't? Your parents are so unfair these days."

And so Jimmy found himself with another dilemma.

* * *

And like before, Sheen was the main solver of his problems.

"Libby is such a hottie," Sheen said as they hovered outside of Cindy's window like they had every day for the past week and a half. "I hardly talk to her, though. I should really start. She's in a lot of my classes…" Sheen kept talking on and on about how nice Libby was, how hot she was, how she smiled at him the other day in math class, and even though it got really annoying, it started to make Jimmy think.

Libby was Cindy's best friend, obviously. They talked about anything and everything. So what if he convinced Sheen to talk to Libby, who would talk to Cindy and then get back to him?

Like any other undeveloped, premature plan, this particular plan had many flaws. Like, what if Libby didn't want anything to do with Sheen? Or, what if she _did_ but didn't want to help Jimmy?

Either way, Jimmy was a believer in doing something just to see if it would work. After thinking about the outcome, he would just ask Sheen to talk to Libby, and it was all set. It was what you called an _experiment_, and Jimmy, the lover of all things scientific, was a fervent believer in all things experimental, as stated before.

"Sheen, you like Libby, right?" Jimmy asked abruptly. Sheen faltered, and Carl laughed a little.

"More like _love_," Carl teased. "You talk about her all the time. It's gets a little annoying after awhile."

Sheen glared at them both, smacking them in the head with both his hands, at the same time, something that took talent and time. "What would you know about _love_, Carl?"

Before a debate broke out, Jimmy interrupted, "Okay, so why don't you talk to her? You just said she's in your classes. You talk to her, and I've even got some great talking points for you."

Sheen brightened considerably. "You do? That's great. What do you have in mind?"

"I think that…killing two birds with one stone is what I'm thinking."

Carl and Sheen looked equally confused, so he continued, "Well, there is something I need to know about Cindy, and you want to talk to Libby. So, by asking Libby about Cindy, then you get to talk to her and I get to find the correct information about Cindy. Therefore, we're killing two birds with one stone."

Sheen considered this, putting a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Yes, that is…a useful idea…no, it's a _great_ idea. You are a genius…oh wait, yeah, we already knew that. But it's worth mentioning. Anyway, what should I talk to her about, _exactly_?"

Jimmy climbed down from the tree, realizing that the spying thing was going absolutely nowhere and Sheen and Carl followed obediently.

"I know what you can say," Carl chimed in with a smile. "You can say, _"Hello, my name is Sheen and I think you're hot. I want you to tell me what kind of qualities your best friend, Cindy Vortex, likes in a guy. Want to hang out?" _I think that sounds good, doesn't it?"

Jimmy laughed in spite of himself and Sheen shoved Carl, who almost fell but didn't. Carl just laughed and ran ahead. "Right, sure. That sounds great and all, Carl, but I don't think it'll work. I think you should just try striking up casual conversation with her. Ask her how she is…that kind of stuff. You think you can do that?" He glanced at Sheen as they walked up the steps to Jimmy's front porch and sat down.

Sheen just nodded.

"Good. Then, eventually, you can ask her about Cindy. You need to specifically ask her what Cindy sees in an extraordinary guy, and I guess if she asks, you can tell her why you want to know."

Looking confused, Sheen blinked at him. "Uh huh…and why do I want to know, again?"

Carl snorted and shook his head. "This will never work."

Jimmy shot him a sharp look and said, "Because…well, I want to know, and I asked you to. Okay?"

Nodding, Sheen leaned back on his elbows. "Of course, it'll be done, and it'll be done smooth and suave-like. You just wait and see."

Carl shook his head again and Jimmy smiled uncertainly. "It better."

* * *

Sheen tapped his pencil restlessly on his desk, peering at Libby out of the corner of his eye. She had her head resting in her left hand, facing him and away from the teacher. Her pencil was poised, but her eyes were closed. She was obviously schooled in the art of fooling teachers, which was one of the many reasons Sheen liked her.

Sheen tapped his pencil harder now, glancing at the teacher who was clicking around on her computer, not paying any attention to her students. _Perfect_.

He reached over and tapped his pencil on her desk, and her eyes fluttered open slowly. She didn't look at him, didn't even notice him, but he watched her as she stared at her homework and then to the clock, and finally, to Sheen's pencil that was still touching the edge of her desk. Her eyes trailed up and up and up his arm and his shoulder and finally to his face, where she raised one brow at him tiredly.

He just grinned and gave her a slight wave. She nodded her head once in recognition and watched as he ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook and wrote her a note and passed it to her silently:

_Hey, I'm Sheen._

Libby thought that this had to be the weirdest thing that had happened to her all day.

_Yeah, I know. _

_I'm Libby._

Sheen just grinned, hardly able to contain his joy.

_I know. _

_How are you?_

Libby blinked at the piece of paper on her desk disbelievingly. This kid just wanted to know how she was _doing_? That was it? He didn't want to cheat off of her, hook up with her, or annoy her?

_I'm okay. _

_Uh…how are you?_

Sheen couldn't believe that Jimmy's advice had actually worked. She was talking to him!

_I'm great. _

_You're friends with Cindy Vortex, right?_

The mocha-skinned girl narrowed her eyes and sat up straighter. Oh. He probably liked Cindy, and he knew that they were best friends. He probably just wanted her to play matchmaker. What a joke…

_Yeah, I am. _

_Do you want her number?_

Confused, Sheen hoped that Libby didn't get the idea that _he_ liked Cindy.

_No! No, I don't like Cindy, but my friend does._

_And we were wondering what Cindy sees in a guy. Since you're her best friend, we figured that you'd be able to help us. _

This hardly made Libby feel better, actually. Not only was he just talking to her on behalf of his "friend", but the conversation was still centered on Cindy, and she wasn't even around!

_Oh, I see. _

_I am able to help you._

_But why should I?_

Sheen had not predicted that Libby might say no. He had no clue what to do or say to this, because really, she had no reason to help them. He would just have to work his charm on her.

_Well, I can't really think of a reason, but how about I take you on a date?_

_Would that make up for the trouble you'd have to go through?_

The teacher turned on the room now, squawking about worksheets and bad grades and detentions and Libby crumpled up the note and held it in her hand tightly.

Her only answer was the bright grin she sent his way, and he grinned back.

Killing two birds with one stone, indeed.

* * *

"It worked?" Jimmy asked with a pleasant smile on his face, and Sheen nodded. He had just gotten back from his date with Libby, where they shared ice cream and they barely talked about Cindy at all, except at the end, when Libby kissed him straight on the lips and said, "I'll help you."

"Not only did it work, it worked _wonderfully_. She agreed to help us _and_ I got a date _and_ kiss. How lucky am I?" Sheen bragged with a smug smile on his face.

Carl rolled his eyes. "She kissed you? That's surprising. Even more surprising than the fact that she agreed to go on a date with you in the first place."

Sheen turned on him, anger apparent on his face. "Shut up, Carl! I don't need your snarky behavior right now; it's ruining my good mood!"

"Both of you shut up!" Jimmy barked, standing up from his position on the porch step, and focused on Cindy's house with clear, excited eyes. "That's all she said? That she would agree to help? I need details, Sheen, DETAILS."

"Oh, she said something about going over to Cindy's house tonight. We'll spy on them whenever she goes over there." Sheen didn't bother to move from his now relaxed position on the railing of Jimmy's porch, where he was perched like a bird, reading to jump up and fly away at any given second.

"And by tonight, you mean right now, don't you?" Carl asked, pointing across the street, where Libby was walking up the steps of Cindy's house.

Sheen smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, right now. That's what I meant."

Jimmy just grinned. "That's perfect. Let's go."

--

"There's that Spring Formal dance coming up soon, you have anybody in mind?" Libby asked while peering at her reflection in the mirror, or at least, that's what Cindy assumed she was doing. She was actually trying to see if Sheen and his friends were outside the window, listening. And they were.

Cindy shrugged. She was flipping through her closet, slowly, listening to the click-clack of the hangers hitting one another. "Not really. There aren't many choices here in Boringville," She said mildly, pulling out a shirt, and then putting it back.

"What are you looking for, anyway? Considering that I am one of the best Matchmakers of my time, I think that I can be of some help." She shot a smile her friend's way and Cindy shook her head, a slight smile on her face.

"I'm looking for extraordinary."

Libby huffed and straightened, turning towards her friend. "I know _that_, silly. But…what makes a guy extraordinary?"

Outside the window, Jimmy was doing a victory dance in his head. Libby had gotten the question perfectly. And now, all he had to do was wait for the perfect answer.

Cindy stopped sifting through her clothes and fixed her feature with a confused but concentrated expression. "Well…I don't really know. Extraordinary isn't really something that can be described. It's something that sort of just _happens_. It's not like you can pinpoint an extraordinary guy just by looking at him."

Libby considered this and sat down on Cindy's bed. "You have a point. But what are _looking_ for? Smart? Handsome? Good at sports? You're giving me nothing to go on."

Cindy sat down beside her with a sigh. "I know. I guess I'm waiting for a certain _click_ feeling with a guy. Any guy. Well, no, not just _any_ guy. That's the problem. I don't want to settle for just _any_ guy."

Now, Cindy was extremely confused, and so were the three guys sitting outside of her house, listening to the girls talk.

But Libby had an idea. Picking up a stray magazine that lay on the floor, she read the headline that said, _Marcus Nevins: Extraordinary Man of the Year?_

"This is ironic," she muttered, flipping through the magazine until she landed on the interview page. "Have you ever heard of Marcus Nevins?" She asked Cindy.

Cindy leaned over the bed and peered at the magazine with squinty eyes. "Yeah. Isn't he the inventor of something? He's…majorly hot."

Libby grinned in a wolfish way. "He is majorly hot."

Marcus Nevins was not the actual inventor of anything. He was distantly _related_ to an inventor; the inventor of AstroTurf. And AstroTurf wasn't that amazing of an invention to Cindy and Libby, but this guy was filthy _rich_. He had inherited millions after his ancestors died and passed on the patent of AstroTurf to their beloved great-great-great?-grandson.

And it certainly helped that he wasn't bad to look at; he wore glasses, but they were the sexy black-rimmed kind that looked more for style than for reading, he had black, mussed-up hair that made him look like he had just rolled out of bed, and vivid green eyes. He also dressed in an "I'm rich and I wear expensive clothing, but the clothing I wear looks cheap" style, which could be obnoxious on some but looked good on him.

He was good in business and finances, and although he didn't run the AstroTurf business completely, he was pretty close. He was smart, charming, dashing, handsome…and, according to the magazine, _extraordinary._

"It says here he's the Most Extraordinary Man of the Year. I agree wholeheartedly, don't you? It _also_ says he's coming to Dallas."

"When?" Cindy ripped the magazine out of Libby's grasp and held it close to her face. "Oh, it's this weekend. He's coming to the Texas Ranger's ballpark."

Libby glanced towards this window. "You think he's extraordinary?"

Cindy nodded, staring at the picture of Marcus Nevins and all his handsome features.

"So you would say an extraordinary guy would be smart, handsome, and good with money, rich…things like that?"

Cindy shrugged. "I _guess_. What are you getting at?"

"Nothing, nothing." Libby gazed at the magazine again, and didn't bring up the topic of Extraordinary Men again for the rest of the day.

--

"That was absolutely suckish," Sheen said as they entered Jimmy's house not ten minutes later. All the spying, thinking, and tree-climbing made them hungry.

Jimmy was very disappointed. "I know. She's so…vague. And who is this Marcus Nevins character? I've never even heard of him."

"I don't know, but he's coming to Dallas this weekend." Sheen said while browsing through Jimmy's fridge. "We should go meet up with him and get tips on how to be extraordinary."

Carl shook his head. "No way. That's a bad idea."

But as luck would have it, he said this the same time Jimmy said, "Sheen! That's a great idea!"

"What's a great and bad idea?" Mrs. Neutron stepped into the kitchen with her husband in tow, carrying grocery bags.

Carl smiled dreamily, and Sheen hit him with a piece of ham he found in the fridge, and laughed.

"We want to go meet Marcus Nevins in Dallas this weekend," Jimmy said quickly, before Carl or Sheen could object.

Mrs. Neutron smiled, "That dreamy guy who invented AstroTurf?"

Hugh Neutron grumbled under his breath and retreated to the living room, not liking his wife explain someone else as "dreamy."

"That would be the one," Carl said, equally as irritated as Mr. Neutron.

"Oh, you want to drive all the way to _Dallas_? I don't know if that's a good idea. Hugh! Come in here and help me with the groceries!"

Jimmy sighed. "It's not just for fun, though, mom. It's…a project for school. We have to interview a real person about inventions."

Mrs. Neutron smiled. "Well, why don't they ask you? You've invented plenty of things."

Carl smiled. "Yeah, they really should ask you. It would save us a lot of trouble –"

Jimmy elbowed Carl in the side and he grunted, but falling quiet.

"Well, I'm not really famous for my inventions. So, we can go, right?"

With her head stuck in the fridge, Jimmy heard his mother say something like, "You can go if blah blah blah and you have to be careful and blah blah blah and your father blah money blah NO ALCOHOL blah."

"Sure, okay, thanks!"

Jimmy ushered his two best friends out of his kitchen and upstairs to his room.

"That was surprisingly easy," he commented. "Now, we just have to convince Cindy…and Libby…to go with us."

Sheen perked up considerably. "YES! Wait, why? Why would we bring them along if you're going to find out how to get Cindy to date you?"

"Because it's an opportunity to get closer to her. And don't you want to get closer to Libby?"

Carl was unhappy. "What do _I_ get out of this? Sheen has Libby, you have Cindy, and I have nothing! I'd like to benefit from this too," He stated, crossing his arms.

Jimmy thought about this for a moment. "Sheen and I will find a girlfriend for you. You just have to give us time."

Carl rolled his eyes and sighed loudly. "I don't necessarily need a _girlfriend_. But you know…we could go to the Dallas Zoo…they have llamas there. A lot of llamas."

Sheen snickered but Jimmy just shrugged. "Whatever you want, Carl. Whatever you want."

Sheen threw his arms in the air with enthusiasm.

"This is like killing seven birds with one stone!"

* * *

**Well…review. (:**


	2. Predator

**Story: **Extraordinary Machine

**Chapter: **Predator

**Genre(s): **romance/drama/humor

**Pairings: **Jimmy/Cindy, Libby/Sheen, implied Nick/Cindy

**Rating: **T.

**Summary: **In order to get the girl, Jimmy concocts a plan. He needs to be extraordinary, so he enlists Marcus Nevins and his two best friends to help him. But along the way, he learns that there is more to it than that. "You did not fall in love with me; you fell in love with the person you thought was me."

**Disclaimer: **_**I don't own Jimmy Neutron or AstroTurf. But I sure as hell own Marcus Nevins. **_

**Notes: **this story is ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. Jimmy and Cindy are neighbors but they aren't enemies/friends/secret lovers. You'll see when you read.

Also, this will probably be short. I'm expecting like, five chapters? Hopefully, they'll be long. The longer the chapters, the shorter the story.

I don't know why, but I made the characters really OOC. I guess it's because it's an AU story? But Sheen is smarter, Carl is more sarcastic, Jimmy is more serious, Cindy is more mysterious, but Libby is mostly the same.

So…no reviews saying how weird my story is, got it? Please and thank you!

* * *

Cindy Vortex was only a little suspicious when there was a note in her locker, but only a little. But she was _very_ suspicious whenever she opened the note and read its contents:

_Cindy,_

_Will you meet me outside near the big oak tree during lunchtime? Please don't be suspicious; I just want to talk to you about something._

_Jimmy Neutron, your neighbor._

Usually, when someone told you not to do something, you did it anyway. It was nature of humans, really. So when Jimmy told her not to be suspicious, she was anyways.

But she decided that she would talk to him anyways, because Cindy Vortex liked to think that she was a girl who lived life on the edge, or something like that.

--

Jimmy felt like he was a brave kind of guy, but he wanted Sheen and Carl to be there with him when he talked to Cindy. More than anything, he felt intimidated by her. He had never really talked to her.

He knew a few basic things about her: her taste in men (extraordinary), how smart she was (very), how pretty she was (beautiful, even) and that she lived across the road from him. And…that was about it. So what if she didn't want to travel to Dallas with three guys she hardly knew to meet Marcus Nevins at a ballpark?

He wouldn't blame her if she didn't.

He also asked Libby to be there, so she could convince Cindy if she felt doubtful about the road-trip. Libby, however, looked doubtful about the whole situation herself. Jimmy was surprised she even agreed to talk to Cindy in the first place, and he was even _more_ surprised that she didn't go batshit insane on their asses when Sheen let it slip that they frequently spied on the girls in Cindy's room. Actually, it seemed like Libby was apathetic about the whole thing.

Girls were odd creatures.

Libby and Cindy were walking towards the three of them now, and Jimmy doesn't smoke but he wished he was now. Smoking was bad, but it would make him seem calm and cool at the moment when they talked up to him. Wait, what if Cindy didn't like smoking?

Or what if she did smoke?

Hm.

"Guys, do you have any cigarettes?" Jimmy whispered to Sheen and Carl urgently.

Carl looked alarmed and Sheen just laughed. "Dude, how would _we_ get cigarettes? We're seventeen."

Carl frowned at his best friend, "You don't need to smoke. Just chill."

Jimmy just smiled. "I know. Just making sure you guys wouldn't let me smoke."

Sheen just laughed harder, while Carl rolled his eyes. Libby and Cindy stopped in front of them at this moment, while Sheen was in mid-laugh and Carl was mid-hitting-Sheen-over-the-head. What sight for them to see, Jimmy thought, and my friends are going to ruin this for me.

Libby cracked a smile, though, and Cindy looked at them with curiosity. "So you're the genius boy." She said blandly, looking him up and down.

_Seriously_? She was already discriminating him by his intelligence. This was NOT good.

He glared at Sheen and Carl, who both shrugged. Sheen decided to open his big fat mouth and put in his two cents; "Yeah, that's him alright! My best friend, the genius." He slapped him on the back with a huge grin, but retracted his hand as if stung when he caught Jimmy's expression. "Uh, or not."

Cindy looked confused and Libby sighed. "I told her you were a genius. Don't get your panties in a bundle."

Jimmy crossed his arms and tried to look like he still had some dignity left. "My panties are _not_ in a bundle."

Libby giggled and so did Cindy, "You wear panties?" Cindy asked, and the two of them burst into laughter as if they were two little girls at a sleepover. Sheen eventually laughed, and even Carl chuckled a bit. Jimmy couldn't help but crack a smile, because Cindy had a nice laugh.

When they had all finally sobered up enough to speak coherently, Cindy asked, "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Jimmy found himself frozen, unable to talk or more. This was harder than he had thought it would be. He also found himself just _staring_ at Cindy, her intense green eyes, blonde hair swept back in the ponytail she had worn during gym class, the way she was chewing on her necklace. It fascinated him.

"Um…well, here's the thing: Sheen, Carl, and I found an article about Marcus Nevins and we read that he was going to be in Dallas this weekend and we, well _I_, was wondering if you wanted to go." Jimmy surprised himself by not stuttering and actually sounding somewhat sure of himself.

Raising a brow, she dropped her necklace out of her mouth and it landed perfectly on her collarbone, the shiny silver cross gleaming in the sun. "What gave you the idea that I'd like to see him?" She sounded suspicious, which was bad. Very, very bad.

Libby smiled at her friend and said almost sheepishly, "That was my doing. I heard Sheen talking about it during class one day and I said that you just _loved_ Marcus Nevins and he said we could come along, but Jimmy wanted to invite you formally, or whatever." She shrugged, still smiling.

She was the perfect liar.

Sheen was smitten, Carl was impressed, and Jimmy was very grateful.

Cindy bought it completely. "Oh, well she was right. This weekend, you say?" She picked up her necklace and put it in her mouth, looking off into the distance as if trying to see something invisible.

"Yeah. I told my parents that it was for a school thing, and they agreed. I know – lying is not an ideal thing but it would be best we all used the same story."

Cindy grinned, the thin cross in between her teeth. She reminded him of a predator, almost, the way she smiled like that, but he secretly liked it too. It made him shiver a little.

"I'm up for it."

Libby snorted. "You better let someone else talk to your parents, though. You're terrible at lying."

Cindy looked offended. "I am just fine, thank you." She glared at her, then turned back to Jimmy. "It sounds fun. But right now I have to go to a yearbook staff meeting. I'm already late. I'll talk to you soon."

She grinned again, her teeth white and brilliant in the afternoon sun, and she ran off.

Libby stayed behind, glancing at all three of them. "Well, it worked," she said grudgingly.

Jimmy couldn't wipe the smile off his face for the rest of the day.

* * *

"Today was very successful," Jimmy said enthusiastically while sitting in the lab with Sheen and Carl, that stupid silly grin still plastered on his face.

Sheen nodded, his expression grave and wise. "It was, it was. You learned quite a few things about Cindy today, did you not?"

Jimmy shrugged. "Uh, she wears a cross necklace."

Carl buried his head in his hands. "Nice observation, genius."

Even Sheen looked incredulous. "No shit, Sherlock. But I mean, about her personality. What did you learn?"

But Jimmy was still confused. "She has a nice laugh…and a nice smile…" The smile was back, and his eyes unfocused.

Sheen groaned. "I'm losing him, Carl. I need help."

Carl stood up and smacked Jimmy in the face, who instinctively hit him back, and Sheen yelled, "WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT CINDY TODAY, JIMMY?"

Glaring at him, Jimmy retorted, "I DON'T KNOW. She's on the yearbook staff."

Carl, satisfied with this work, sat back down. "Very good, Jimmy. Very good."

Sheen nodded in agreement. "Yes, but what else? Something that Libby said about her, right?"

Jimmy shrugged again, rubbing his slightly red cheek.

Sheen tugged at his hair in an exasperated motion. "Libby said that Cindy is a terrible liar."

"Yes, she did say that," Jimmy's eyes lit up a little bit, and his smile returned. "But that's okay. Libby has enough lying ability for the both of them, doesn't she?" He laughed lightly.

This time, it was Sheen's eyes to glaze over and his smile to turn dreamy. "Oh yeah, she's _great_."

Carl groaned.

--

"Wasn't that crazy today? Being asked to go to Dallas, I mean. It sure doesn't happen every day," Cindy was smiling, flipping through the same magazine that had Marcus Nevins on the front cover.

Libby shrugged lightly, but she hid her mischievous expression. "It sure doesn't. You really want to go?"

Looking thoughtful, she replied, "Yes, I do. I mean, I don't know any of those guys very well…they seem okay…I guess. It was nice of Jimmy to invite me."

"Us, Cindy. They invited _both_ of us." Libby said, looking irritated. "And what is it with saying 'they' and 'those guys?' Their names are Sheen and Carl."

Cindy finally looked at her best friend, looking slightly confused and innocent, like she had no idea why Libby would be irritated with her. "I knew that. It's just easier to shorten it a little. What's your deal tonight?"

"Do you know what I did two nights ago?"

"Um, no. What did you do?" Cindy sat up, magazine still open. She sat cross legged, smiling and eyes bright with anticipation.

Libby was not easily charmed. "I went out on a date," she deadpanned, and Cindy grinned despite Libby's enthusiastic tone. "With Sheen."

Grin disappearing, Cindy chuckled a little, with a malicious tone. "Oh, that sounds…nice. Did you have fun?"

Standing Libby, glared at her. "I had a great time, actually. Sheen is really nice. I mean…he's kind of air-headed, but I like him. I actually _like_ him. I even kissed him at the end of the night, _that's_ how much I like him. But the only reason I even _got_ that date was because –"

Libby knew that you always had choices to make in life, and this was definitely one of them. She was outraged, mostly because Libby simply could not _take_ Cindy's dismissive, self-centered behavior anymore: every day, they talked about her. She had gotten that date with Sheen, because of Cindy. (Which was sort of a good thing, but she digresses.) She was getting a chance to go to Dallas, because of _Cindy_. Libby just felt like all her life – but especially this week – she had been riding on Cindy's coattails. It was not enjoyable, not anymore.

But Jimmy was her friend, too, maybe not a close one or an old one, but a friend nonetheless. And she just knew that if she told Cindy that the whole reason Jimmy asked them to go was so Jimmy could make a move on her (or what_ever_ he was planning), Cindy would probably refuse, or go on a rampage. In the end, Jimmy's chances would most likely be ruined.

And she didn't want to do that to him.

Sitting down and shutting up, Libby made a choice to pretend like she hadn't said anything in the first place.

Cindy stared at her, more confused than ever, before staring blankly at her magazine. The days were just getting stranger and stranger as they went by.

* * *

"I talked with my mom last night," Cindy was standing at the head of Jimmy's lunch table, the one in the far corner. She sat way on the other side. She had a bottle of water and an apple in hand, the cross necklace looking dull in the fluorescent light of the cafeteria. Her face was calm, blank. "I told her that we need to interview Marcus Nevins because of a project for school and she said no."

At the lunch table that Jimmy, Sheen, and Carl sat at, there were others that sat there, too. There were just so many people that went to Retroville High that it was simply impossible for all the cliques and groups to get their own table; so incidentally, the three guys sat with the foreign exchange students and a few freshman and sophomore boys.

They, meaning _all_ the boys sitting at the table, were staring wide-eyed at Cindy as if she were an alien from another planet, the planet where Hot Girls Wearing Pretty Dresses come from. Cindy wasn't the _ruler_ of said planet, but she was probably high up in the hierarchy there.

Cindy did not take not of any of this, however, and just stared at Jimmy while waiting for some sort of answer.

"Um, well…I can talk to her for you, if you want. Or…I can make up a fake letter from the school."

She tossed her apple up and down in her hand, and then she smiled. "The letter is a great idea, when can you have it done?"

"If you want to bring it home with you from school, I can get it done during seventh period. It would seem more realistic that way." Jimmy shrugged. A simple solution to a not-very-complicated problem; child's play, for him.

Her smile grew wider into that dangerous, predator-like grin again, and Jimmy sat up straighter, feeling more alert. "Well, Jimmy Neutron…I don't know about you being a genius, but you sure are one devious person." She took a huge bite out of her apple and walked away. Jimmy watched her, mesmerized, as she sat down at her table and animatedly talked to Libby. When Cindy turned away from her, Libby cast a look behind her shoulder, one was pleased and unpleased at the same time. Jimmy thought this was strange, but he did not think much about it now.

"God, she scares me," Sheen muttered, glancing down at the still silent tablemates at the other end. "And those guys are probably thinking how great you must be, to get such a hottie to talk to you like that. Just wait, one of these days _Libby_ will walk up here and just like, start feeling me up or whatever and they will make _me_ King. One of these days…"

Carl looked at Jimmy. "That was a pretty good idea," he said mildly. "I guess Libby was right when she called Cindy a terrible liar."

Jimmy just shrugged, finally looking at his two best friends. "I guess so. But who cares about that? I'm going to get Cindy to come along with us if it takes me an arm and a leg!" He stabbed his (undercooked, disgusting) lasagna with his fork.

"Well, Libby is definitely going along. Her parents okay'd it already and everything."

Carl nodded. "That's good."

Sheen cast him a bewildered look. "You are being so nice to me today. What is your deal?"

Sighing, Carl said, "My parents won't let me go either."

Jimmy waved his hand dismissively. "I'll write you a permission letter, too. No big deal. And I kind of figured Libby would come, but if Cindy doesn't go I'm calling the whole thing off."

Sheen looked up at him sharply. "What? No. No, that's not cool." Carl also looked unhappy with this, but decided to stay silent. Sheen would say enough for the both of them, he knew. "You cannot just call it off because her parents won't let her roadtrip with us. There will be other chances; we can't just call this off! I promised Libby we'd hang out this weekend, and our parents already think we're going. You are NOT calling this off for one stupid girl."

Jimmy just stared at him, his eyes cold but blank. He didn't say anything, just shoved back his chair and stood up, grabbing his tray of uneaten food and stalked off.

--

Libby watched the three boys talk, or maybe argue, for a few minutes before she witnessed Jimmy practically running away from his table, seething in anger. She shook her head slightly. Cindy, who was sitting across from her, was oblivious to all of this, like always. She munched on her apple contently, turning a page of her book, _Pride and Prejudice_.

She simply could not fathom how one person – one _girl_ – could tear apart so many friendships.

* * *

**I am sorry this is not very long! But I thought this was a good stopping point. **

**The next chapter shall be up sooner, I should hope.**

**Anyway, I don't have much to say except this: Libby does not give Cindy much credit, as you can see! They are best friends, but it isn't the fluffiest, happiest friendship. And Cindy is not a vapid, shallow person. This story is STILL in development, plot-wise. Keep that in mind.  
**

**Also, review! (:**

**P.S. I am taking fanfiction requests; go to my profile for details.  
**


End file.
